We know, we know. You went to a fancy school. You have outstanding credentials. You specialize in words that are hard to pronounce.

But nobody wants to read about it.

We asked hospital communicators whether they helped physicians talk about themselves in more-interesting ways. But having a doctor throw in a line,
such as, “I like riding my bike after work” doesn’t make the cut.

Here are four examples of bios that did:

Introduce physicians through video

Sanford Health shared the video of Dr. Sarah Lien, who introduces herself on video to her patients.

In this quick video, she talks about why she became a pediatrician and how she enjoys watching her patients grow up. She also shares a personal
anecdote, saying that having her baby during the third year of her residency made her a better pediatrician.

You can watch the video below:

Make it personal

At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, physician bios are written like first-person narratives.

We were hooked by Peter J. Allen’s bio. Take a look at this excerpt:

I am a surgical oncologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating people with cancerous or precancerous conditions of the pancreas, liver, and
stomach. My initial general surgical training was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, followed by a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

After my fellowship here in 2004, as part of my service to the U.S. Army, I served for a year as a surgeon on a small trauma team in Iraq called
the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment Forward Surgical Team. During this time we provided acute trauma care to soldiers injured in combat, as well as
surgical care to Iraqi patients in hospitals in Baghdad and surrounding villages. I was honored to receive the Combat Medical Badge in 2004 for
providing surgical care during combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Callista Dammann, interactive marketing specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said her hospital recently redesigned all their physician
profiles on the website.

“Not only do they have clinical and research information specific to each physician, such as publications, education, research, funding, clinical, and
research interests, it also includes videos and physician podcasts,” Dammann says.

To introduce a new type of physician—a physiatrist—to the community, UMass Memorial Medical Center turned to Facebook. It also promoted the idea on the hospital intranet, to more than
10,000 employees.

It posted a “Name that Physician” trivia question on its page, followed by a link to the

“5 questions with…a physiatrist.”

Here’s an example of a question from the physiatrist in question:

Did you receive any advice or words of wisdom that stick out in your mind?

Some responses:

“Your patients will teach you more about medicine than any book will.”

“People who spend a lot of time with patients are worth spending time with.”

“Take the time during your training to spend time with nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists.”

"Remember, you are coming into the theatre in the middle of the movie. The story might not make sense at first; give it time.”

Are you introducing your physicians to patients in an engaging way? If so, tell us about it in the comments section.